Klean Protein Chewy Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Created by Karlyn Grimes, MS RD LDN CSSD⁺
(biography click here)

Chewy, crispy and delicious. A great go-to snack that offers a more enhanced nutrient profile compared to your average pre-packaged granola bar. Just one bar will provide you with more than 10% of your daily requirements for essential vitamins and minerals. Each bar also offers six times more protein than the average chocolate chip granola bar. And no worries if you follow a peanut or tree nut-free diet — just choose a nut-free butter alternative. In a nutshell, if you want to raise the bar, then you have found the perfect recipe.

PREP TIME: 10-15 minutes
COOL: 2 hours
YIELD: 15-18 bars, depending on size

INGREDIENTS

• ½ cup nut or alternative butter (peanut, almond, or nut-free SunButter or WowButter)
• ⅓ cup brown sugar
• ¾ cup honey or agave syrup
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• Heaping ⅛ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cups quick-cooking/instant oats (NOT regular, old-fashioned oats)
• 2 cups crispy rice cereal, such as regular or brown Rice Krispies
• ½ cup Klean Isolate™ (try vanilla or chocolate for a flavor twist)
• ¼ cup flax meal or wheat germ
• ½ cup mini chocolate chips (or to taste) and/or dried fruit

DIRECTIONS

1. Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with aluminum foil. Spray the foil lightly with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large pot, combine the nut butter, brown sugar and honey. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Lower the heat and simmer until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla and salt.
3. Add the oats, rice cereal, Klean Isolate™, flax meal (or wheat germ) and mini chocolate chips to the pan. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a rubber spatula until well combined.
4. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and press down firmly with a rubber spatula to even out. The mixture should be tightly compacted in the pan. Place the pan in the refrigerator for 1 ½ to 2 hours to cool.
5. Use the foil overhang to transfer the uncut bars to a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut into rectangles. Store the bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If you have to stack them, be sure to use parchment paper or foil in between the layers; otherwise, they’ll stick together and fall apart.

Note: If you are substituting dried fruit for the chocolate chips, mix it in along with the other ingredients, as opposed to sprinkling over the top.

Nutrient Content per Granola Bar: Calories: 167; Carbohydrate: 24 grams; Fiber: 2 grams; Protein: 6 grams; Fat: 7 grams; Vitamin B₆: 8% Daily Value;  Vitamin B₁₂: 8% DV; Folate: 12% DV; Thiamin: 12% DV; Iron: 11% DV; Zinc: 10%; Magnesium: 11% DV.

Bio
Karlyn Grimes, MS RD LDN CSSD, is the founder of Simply Simple Health (SSH) and author of The Everything Anti-Inflammation Diet Book. SSH creates and administers nutrition, fitness and health education programs for athletes, educators, coaches and sports teams at schools and colleges throughout the Boston area. Its programming includes individual and group sports nutrition counseling, as well as sport-specific personal training. SSH also contributes to numerous academic textbooks and magazines.

Karlyn has a dual Master’s degree in nutrition and exercise physiology from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Colgate University, with a minor in economics. She is a registered dietitian (RD) with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a certified specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD) and a licensed dietitian nutritionist (LDN) in the state of Massachusetts. She is currently a faculty member in the Nutrition and Biology Departments at Simmons College in Boston, where she teaches sports nutrition, medical nutrition therapy, exercise physiology, anatomy and physiology, general biology, and numerous other courses.

⁺Our medical advisors are retained consultants for Klean Athlete.